COD Library: Anti-Racist Pedagogy Toolkit: Critical Race Theory

Library

Coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, Critical Race Theory is the practice of interrogating race and racism in society that emerged in the emerged in the legal academy and spread to other fields of scholarship (via).

Critical race theory has five basic tenets:

Counter-storytelling: A framework that legitimizes the racial and subordinate experiences of marginalized groups.
- Read "Who Can Speak for Whom? Using Counter-Storytelling to Challenge Racial Hegemony" by Lisa R. Merriweather Hunn, Talmadge C. Guy, and Elaine Manglitz
Permanence of racism: Idea that racism controls the political, social, and economic realms of U.S. society.
- Read "Derrick Bell’s Interest Convergence and the Permanence of Racism: A Reflection on Resistance" by Alexis Hoag
Whiteness as property: Embodiment and legitimization of benefits that accrue exclusively to White individuals through American law.
- Read "Whiteness as Property" by Cheryl Harris
Interest convergence: People with power will support social, political, and economic justice if it benefits them and/or their interests.
- Read "A Theory To Better Understand Diversity, And Who Really Benefits" by David Shih
Critique of liberalism: CRT challenges key ideas of liberalism such as color blindness, individualism, meritocracy, and the neutrality of the law.
- Read "Color Blindness Is Counterproductive" by Adia Harvey Wingfield

READ

**Critical Race Theory, Purdue Online Writing Lab, Purdue University**

This highly accessible introduction to CRT, part of OWL's Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism guide, provides an overview, common questions, and important terms, as well as recommended sources for additional research

LISTEN

"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Critical Race Theory on Education and Mental Health" The Theory of Change Podcast (1 hr)

In this episode we are joined by Dr. David Stovall and discuss Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory is important for understanding the historical context of social stratification in our society. Dr. Stovall is a Professor of African-American studies, Criminology, and Law at the UI in Chicago. Dr. Stovall studies the influence of race in urban education, and community development He is the author of Born Out of Struggle: Critical Race Theory, School Creation, and the Politics of Interruption

WATCH

Interest Convergence and Critical Race Theory - 6th Annual Symposium 2013 "Critical Race Studies at 10: Building our Home"

A panel of scholars discuss the idea of interest convergence and its relationship to critical race theory.

DO

Four Stories

“Stories can be powerful tools for connecting the personal and the political, the individual and the social, the private and the public” Bell, Roberts, Irani, Murphy

According to The Storytelling Project Curriculum, there are four types of stories: Stock stories, Concealed stories, Resistance stories, and Counterstories.

Stock stories are:

told by the dominant group
passed on through historical and literary documents
celebrated through public rituals, monuments and media representations

Concealed stories:

are circulated, told, and retold by people in the margins whose experiences and aspirations they express and honor
provide a perspective that is often very different from that of the mainstream

Resistance stories:

represent the reserve of stories built up through the ages about challenges to an unjust status quo

Counterstories:

are new stories, deliberately constructed to challenge the stock stories
build on and amplify resistance stories
offer ways to interrupt the status quo and work for change
enact continuing critique and resistance to the stock stories
enable new possibilities for inclusive human community

Take a moment to consider the narratives that dominate higher education, the teaching profession, and/or your discipline. The document linked below, adapted from the Storytelling Project, presents some questions for you to reflect on or discuss.

Four Stories Reflection Questions